Black Cloaked Puppy
by Sakura245
Summary: When Akutagawa is turned into a child by an ability user, Atsushi doesn't know what to do. So, he takes him back to Agency. If any of you have read "Taking in a Tiger"... This is kind of like that. )
1. Chapter 1

**Writing binges are fun! This idea has been sitting with me for a long time and I feel that** ** _Taking in a Tiger_** **has just made me love the characters being children. I thought,** ** _What if Atsushi wasn't the child? What if it was Akutagawa?_** **And here we are.**

 **Enjoy!**

 _I'm not allowed to kill her._ Akutagawa reminded himself as he watched a woman with dark eyes and brown hair. She'd obviously sensed she was being watched by now, and she constantly looked over her shoulder. Akutagawa held back a sigh. _It'd be so much easier if I could just kill her._ He coughed into his fist, and looked down at his hand to see if he'd spewed up blood. Nothing. He took a breath in, ignoring the painful scratchiness of his throat.

The woman wasn't stupid enough to try to sneak into an alley. That would make her an easier target. If he'd had Higuchi or any of the Black Lizard with him, he could have easily ordered one of them to "bump into her" and discreetly drag her into the alley. Then, he could easily frighten her into coming along quietly or drag her back with him using Rashomon. The problem was he hadn't brought anyone along to help him. He hadn't thought it necessary, and he still didn't deem them necessary for this job. Now, he'd have to get a bit creative with this abduction.

It started with him shuffling closer to her, quietly and discreetly. He could have dragged her off the streets, kicking and screaming. There were two issues with that plan that stopped him:

Rashomon would diminish his energy

The Port Mafia was constantly on thin ice, and a flashy abduction would get him into trouble

Rashomon curled around his fingertips, and he got closer to the woman. He didn't even have to lay his hands on her. His ability stretched slowly, pricking the woman's side. She didn't scream, she only stiffened next to him. "Make a scene, and I'll kill you. Understand?" She didn't respond. "Understand?" Akutagawa repeated, Rashomon stretching and sticking deeper into her skin, threatening to draw blood. She nodded quickly.

He clicked his tongue boredly at her pitiful surrender. If it was up to him, she'd die right there, his ability through her throat. She should have just died right there for being so weak. However, seeing as how his last job to bring someone in alive had failed, he wasn't feeling bold enough to test Mori's limits.

Rashomon wrapped around his prisoner's waist, ensuring that she couldn't run. He pulled her into an alley. The car would come along any minute to pick them up. Now he just had to wait. The woman didn't seem to try to put up much of a fight. Her eyes stared ahead, tired, frightened, and dead.

"You could have tried to do something," Akutagawa muttered. Though her lack of resistance made his job easier, some part of his brain begged for the adrenaline of a fight. A real fight.

"Why are you taking me?" The woman asked in a small voice.

"Orders." He let Rashomon recede. His captive slumped against a brick wall, her hand protectively placed over the spot where his ability had nearly broken skin. "That's the only reason I didn't gut you like a fish on the street."

They waited a bit longer. He turned his back on the trembling woman. She wasn't worth watching carefully. There was little she could do to escape. Where was the car? This was taking too long. The more time this abduction took, the higher his chances of getting stopped were.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the captive hadn't gone into shock or anything like that. She frantically typed something into her cell phone, probably trying to send for help. Rashomon pierced the phone, the point hovering millimeters from her carotid artery. The broken device dropped from her hands. "That was very stupid," he said calmly as Rashomon lowered and pricked her shoulder. Blood formed a nearly black circle on her green shirt.

He grabbed her throat, pulling her up and holding her so her feet just brushed the ground. "I was ordered to bring you in alive and unharmed. Do you know how difficult you're making that for me?" His grip tightened. "We have a great doctor in the Port Mafia. I'm sure he could fix a few broken bones and a few lacerations."

The woman didn't struggle in his grip. She took a strangled breath in and smiled.

"What's so funny?" Akutagawa asked, eyes narrowing. He loosened his grip so she could get a word out.

"You didn't think this through," she choked out.

" _What?_ "

He felt her swallow hard under his fingers. "I may not be a very powerful ability user," she began hoarsely. "I'm not in any organizations and I don't have powerful friends." She was struggling to speak. She would start going cyanotic if his hand stayed around her throat. "But I'm not completely defenseless." Her hands reached to grip Akutagawa's wrist.

It was as though an electric shock tore through his body. He cursed and dropped her. She coughed, covering her neck with a hand. She forced a smile. "My ability: _Forever Young._ " A purple glow engulfed Akutagawa. The soft light shining from his body burned. It felt like he'd crawled into a stone oven. "I only use it for defense," she rubbed her bruised neck. "You kind of brought this on yourself."

The pain intensified, Akutagawa groaned. His bones were snapping, shrinking in on themselves. He groaned as his energy diminished into the purple light around him. He was shrinking. His memories faded. One moment they were there, the next they weren't, and he was left with only the understanding that he'd lost something. The world blurred beyond his recognition so it looked like nothing but a confusing mix of colors. Then, everything went black.

Atsushi tensed as the tiger's sense of smell picked up a scent in the air.

"What is it?" Kyouka asked from next to him, noticing his sudden stillness. Her hand slipped down to her concealed blade in her kimono.

"I'm pretty sure Akutagawa is around." Atsushi's eyes narrowed. "I don't know what he plans to do, but…" He didn't need to say anything more. It hardly matter what he planned to do. Given Akutagawa's line of work, it was very probably that someone would die.

He tensed again. "I smell blood." Atsushi took off running before either of them had time to formulate any sort of plan. It was a spur of the moment thing. As he kept running, the stench of blood got stronger. It led him to an alley.

"My ability: _Forever Young."_ A dark haired, dark eyed woman said as Akutagawa writhed on the floor. "I only use it for defense," she said, taking a step away from him. Then with a shrug she added, "You kind of brought this on yourself." She was bleeding from her shoulder, her throat was bruised, and she seemed have a stiff walk, but all things considered, she seemed fine. "Excuse me," she muttered distractedly as she bumped into Atsushi.

"W-where are you going?" Atsushi asked, reaching out to grab her arm. He glanced at Akutagawa, who seemed to be… Shrink? Yes, he was getting smaller, groaning in agony. "What did you do to him?" He said softly, staring at his enemy. He hated Akutagawa, but there was something that seemed to tear into his chest as he just watched him suffer on the ground.

The woman pulled away. "Well, I'm heading to the clinic to get medical attention before I get weak from blood loss." She clutched her wounded shoulder, and walked backwards. "You might want to take care of your friend. He's going to be out of it when the light show is over." She gestured to purple glow surrounding Akutagawa.

"He's not my frie-" Atsushi began, but the woman was already leaving, weaving her way through the crowd. He blinked. How could someone disappear that quickly? He put her in the back of his mind when he heard a blood curdling scream.

Kyouka sat four feet away from Akutagawa as though she was afraid to be too close to him.

"Akutagawa," Atsushi said over the yells of pain. "Akutagawa, can you hear me?" He asked urgently, not knowing what else to do. He rolled his enemy onto his back. Akutagawa looked… younger. He looked smaller. With a final, terrible cry of pain, the soft purple glow around him intensified into a blinding burst of light.

The detectives shielded their eyes, practically holding their breaths until the light died down. The light faded, and Atsushi released a breath. He looked at the girl next to him. "Are you alright, Kyouka?" No response. "Kyouka?" Atsushi asked again, trying to blink away the after images. The girl was staring ahead, open mouthed. She said nothing, only pointed to what she was looking at.

Atsushi's eyes followed her finger. He gasped and his eyes widened. In the place where Akutagawa had been writhing in pain, a child between the ages of four and six laid, curled up on his side. His breaths came out evenly, aside from a few gags or coughs in his sleep. He seemed buried in his clothes, the coat acting as a blanket. Atsushi squinted at the boy.

"It can't be," he whispered under his breath.

Kyouka frowned. "It looks like him." She gingerly prodded the child's cheek. He didn't wake up. "Do you think he's okay?" A soon a she'd said that, the boy coughed up blood, but remained asleep.

"That can't be good," Atsushi said, reaching for the child. "We can let take him up."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? He's tried to kill us several times."

Atsushi shrugged. "He's small, and it looks like he'll be out for awhile. I think we can risk it." He situated Akutagawa on his back, pretending not notice Kyouka's glare of disapproval. He made it another another minute before he broke under her intense gaze. "Kyouka, please stop giving me that look. Listen, I don't like him either, but we can't just leave him defenseless here. It doesn't feel right."

 **Sorry if that first chapter was boring. I felt like I had to explain what happened and let Atsushi and Kyouka see it happen. Just so we all know it's Akutagawa. The OC is here strictly to move the story along. She doesn't show up much.**

 **I'm really excited to write more chapters of this!**

 **Thank you for reading! Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, readers! It has been a long time since I've updated pretty much any of my stories and for that I apologize. The end of the summer got to be particularly busy, so I had some difficulty finding the time to write and figuring out just what to write.**

 **Enjoy!**

Being yelled at by Kunikida was never a pleasant experience.

Walking into the Agency with an unconscious child on his back, Atsushi wasn't looking forward to what was coming.

"What is this?" Kunikida's voice was scarily quiet.

It definitely didn't look good, the young detective coming in with a child on his back. His shoulder was stained with blood that Akutagawa had coughed up on the way there.

"Umm… Uhh…" Atsushi began, not knowing where to start. "This is… Akutagawa…"

"Huh?!"

Atsushi flinched as he felt the kid on his back stir.

"He had a run in with an ability user," Kyouka said quietly from beside him. "She turned him into a child." She glanced at the boy before adding, "It looked painful."

"We mainly brought him back so Yosano could make sure he's okay...After that, we don't really know what to do with him."

"WHY-" Kunikida began, but Yosano quickly put a finger to her lips and shushed him. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice to an angered hiss. "Why didn't you think this through? You could have gotten him to the hospital or police station."

"He could be at death's doors," Atsushi muttered. "Plus, he's a kid…" He glanced at young Akutagawa's sleeping face. "We just wanted to get him to Yosano."

"Well then, let me see him," the doctor said, crossing the room to see the child. Atsushi carefully shifted Akutagawa from his back and into his arms. Yosano stared at the boy's blood stained mouth before checking his pulse and feeling for for a temperature.

...

It's scary to wake up to someone yelling.

It's also scary to wake up being carried by a stranger.

Waking up to both at the same time is positively terrifying.

"Mmmm...Uh…" Gray eyes opened at the feeling of a cool hand on his forehead. Panic made its way to his face in a matter of seconds. He slapped away the hands away from his face and struggled against the arms that held him.

"Calm down," the person holding him said, tightening his grip on him. Akutagawa didn't listen, he clawed at his hands, breaking skin. He thrashed until finally twisting and biting his captor's arm. He bit down until he tasted blood. He heard a cry of pain before being dropped onto the floor.

The child wasted no time in trying to escape. He made a run for the door, but _something_ blocked him. It was some kind of demon. It glowed as it pulled its sword from the sheath. Strangely enough, it was familiar, but at the same time, he couldn't remember where he'd seen it before.

His hands shook as he stared at the _thing_ , trying to figure out what to do.

"Akutagawa," a voice called. "Hey, Akutagawa." Someone's fingers wrapped around his shoulder. He yelped and shied away. "It's okay. It's fine," the voice said gently. Akutagawa tensed up and seemed to curl in on himself. "No one's going to hurt you."

He looked up, eyes narrowed. A man with gray hair and colorful eyes knelt in front of him. Although he looked a little young to actually be called a man. Akutagawa kept his hands balled, trying to figure out whether or not to make a break for it again. He was shaking. Akutagawa curled his fists tighter to stop himself from trembling.

"What do you remember?" The man asked. He had a gentle voice, but that wasn't enough to gain Akutagawa's trust. He felt some unexplainable hatred for the gray haired man. There was no straightforward reason in his mind for the feeling of loathing.

"Answer him," a girl in a red kimono said, her voice low and almost threatening. She got a reprimanding glance from the man next to her. Her tone turned gentler. "We can't help you if you don't tell us."

She was familiar… almost. He couldn't quite put together why, and he definitely liked her more than the man-or boy.

"I don't … know…" He whispered, the words sent him into a coughing fit. His throat was so scratchy. It burned with every word, and his chest hurt as though he'd been running for hours. He coughed hard into his fist. His eyes got more watery with every cough. He looked down at his hand when he felt something warm and wet. Blood stained his hand. His eyes widened for a second. In that second, he saw something monstrous. In that second, he saw a _demon._ It was something far scarier than the creature that guarded the door.

Then it was gone.

The man grabbed a tissue from a nearby desk and wiped the blood from his hand. It still left a dark pink blotch on his hand though.

"I suppose it's time for me to do my job," a lady with a butterfly clip in her short hair said. She got to her knees beside Akutagawa and smiled as though that would put him at ease. "I'm a doctor," she said in a softer voice. "Do you want me to make your throat feel better?"

He tilted his head, considering her question. He _did_ want to feel better. However, the word "doctor" sent unpleasant chills down his spine. He didn't know why. He couldn't remember what terrible experience he'd had with a doctor to make him feel so fidgety and cold with fear just by hearing the word. He stood there silently as he attempted to puzzle it out.

The doctor must have gotten tired of waiting. She lifted him off the ground as if he were a ragdoll. She held both of his small hands in hers when he tried to hit her, quietly telling him that everything was fine. She set him on hard mattress before turning to get whatever supplies she needed.

Akutagawa stared at her, the doctor's back was to him. He quietly started to shimmy off the bed. His feet didn't reach the ground when he sat on the edge of the bed. It would make noise if he jumped, but if he was fast enough…

"Don't try it," the doctor said calmly. She turned around to look at him, sending him a withering glare to discourage him from trying to run. "We're not going to hurt you. We just have to figure out what happened to you and how to help."

He tensed under her glare. Waiting for her to turn her back on him again before he pulled his knees to his chest and coughed into his fist again.

She dragged a chair beside his bed and went through a normal check up. She checked his vitals, giving extra care to his lungs and throat, and taking some blood. He didn't like the last part, but got through it.

"Do you know what you last ate?" She asked when they appeared to be done with the check-up.

"No," Akutagawa muttered. That seemed to be his answer to every question she asked.

 _Can you tell me how old you are?_

 _Do you have any memory of what happened before you woke up?_

 _Are there any family members we can call?_

The questions felt taunting, like a mean, constant reminder that he didn't know who he was. Yosano- she'd told him her name at some point while she'd taken his blood pressure- sighed, giving up on finding out anymore.

He crossed his arms across his chest and maintained a closed posture as soon as they were done.

The doctor held out a lollipop to him, nudging his arm with it when he didn't respond. Akutagawa looked up with confusion. "You were good today," she praised, pushing the candy into his hand. He squinted at it, trying to tell if it was safe to eat. "It's okay to eat," she said as if reading his mind.

Akutagawa didn't know where the warm feeling came from. "I was... _good_?" He asked hoarsely, his eyes wide. He couldn't remember anything that'd been said to him before that afternoon, but he was fairly certain that he'd never received praise like that before. It was something so simple. It was just one sentence. Why did it make him feel so...glad?

He was almost scared she'd snatch those words back and say something like " _Nevermind"_ or " _No, that was a joke."_

She didn't say anything like that. Instead she replied with, "Uh-huh." She glanced at the boy and had some sad smile on her face. "You were very cooperative and brave when I had to take some blood."

"Oh." He looked down with a strange expression crossed his features. For a moment, the infirmary was quiet except for the sound of Yosano's pen against her paper as she finished her report.

"Hey, ," a flamboyant voice said as a man wearing a tan coat skipped into the infirmary. "I ran out of bandages. Hope you don't mind me grabbing some more."

Akutagawa squinted. The man was familiar…

"Buy your own bandages, Dazai," the woman said in annoyance.

Dazai pouted. "But the economy is so bad."

Akutagawa's throat hurt. He wanted to say something. For a reason he couldn't put together, he wanted Dazai to say something to him. Or look at him at the very least. "Uh…" The sound came from him involuntarily.

The brown eyed detective turned to him. Akutagawa felt like his blood had frozen. There was something so, so cold in his eyes. He shrunk under Dazai's gaze, but he still maintained eye contact.

"Ability user. No memory. Staying here for now." Yosano explained it all in fragments, quickly and quietly. It wasn't enough for Akutagawa to completely figure out.

Dazai nodded, but some look in his eyes showed that he didn't need any of that explained to him. "Uh-huh," he mumbled. He looked at the boy again, this time in a way that didn't make Akutagawa feel so impossibly small.

"You always looked young to me, but this is new." The statement made no sense to Akutagawa. Wasn't he always this young? Dazai reached out to ruffle Akutagawa's hair, it made the boy flinch, but he paid it no mind.

"Nothing," he said, addressing Yosano when his hand rested on Akutagawa's head for a moment.

Was something supposed to happen?

Dazai withdrew his hand and sighed. "We'll have to find the ability user who did this." He didn't look at Akutagawa after that. It almost hurt. Akutagawa didn't know why or how it hurt. He just knew that one moment Dazai had had his eyes on him and he'd felt nearly terrified. The next, Dazai had turned away from him and he felt like he hardly existed.

There was something scary about Dazai getting so close to him. It was like his body expected to be slapped or punched.

There was something scary about Dazai borderline ignoring him. It was like some feeling of being small and worthless came over him, swallowing him whole.

And as was the norm that day, he couldn't figure out why.

 **I was happy to make Akutagawa just a little happier. He honestly is one of the most tragic characters in this series.**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading.**

 **Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, it has been a long time since I've posted anything for... any of my stories. Make no mistake, that has been eating away at me on the inside. I managed to get this chapter written up, and posting new chapters makes me happy, and I could really use some happiness right now. We're close to finals week and there's so much to do, and it feels like there isn't enough time to study and write essays.**

 **But anyway... I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

There was something so, so familiar about Dazai and Kyouka. He didn't know how to respond to it. It was the small things that he recognized, really. The coppery color of Dazai's eyes, the feeling of shrinking under those eyes. The occasional monotone sound of Kyouka's voice, the vibrant color of her kimono.

With Atsushi… He couldn't figure out what the problem was with Atsushi. Akutagawa hated him, he knew that much, and overall, there wasn't much of a need to investigate the matter any further. He didn't like him despite the gentle voice and soft appearance. Being near him put him on edge.

Akutagawa kicked his feet as he sat alone in a room with Atsushi. He stared at his legs, clothed in children's jeans that the detective in the overalls-Kenji, if Akutagawa remembered correctly- had grabbed for him from some nearby thrift didn't like his new clothes. The shirt was scratchy, and the pants weren't quite his size. However, he did feel like the second hand clothes were better than drowning in the shirt and heavy coat he'd been draped in when he'd woken up.

It was silent, something that seemed to make the gray haired detective fidget. It didn't bother Akutagawa in the slightest. He glanced down at his feet. They couldn't reach the floor from this height. He kicked his legs harder as the feeling of being utterly powerless came over him.

He _hated_ it.

"So…" Atsushi began. "You really don't remember anything?"

Akutagawa glared at him. It was as fierce a glare as he could possibly muster. He didn't know what he actually expected. Maybe for Atsushi to shut up or drop the topic. His scowling, irritated expression should have gotten people to go silent.

Nothing like that happened.

Instead, Atsushi turned to the side and covered his mouth. Fragments of a laugh escaped him.

The child could _feel_ red creep into his face, inch by inch. He swallowed the wrong way, leading him to cough hard into his hand.

He didn't know when Atsushi stopped laughing like an idiot, but at some point he must have because after coughing for a few seconds, he felt a gentle weight on his back. Then it turned to a kind of gentle rubbing. He swallowed again, wiping the tears that had risen with his arm.

Then, he became aware of Atsushi's hand on his back, of the look of pity in his eyes.

A faint yelp escaped his mouth as he slapped the hand away. "Don't touch me!" He roared, but his voice didn't sound like a roar. It was a raspy, young cry. Even to him, it sounded weak. And it added a layer of gravel to his sandpaper walls of his throat. However, his outburst did have the desired effect. Atsushi withdrew his hand, and got up to grab a cup of water.

"Here," he said, holding the paper cup out to Akutagawa. When the child made no move to take it, Atsushi put it on the table next to him before sitting back down. "Jeez," he muttered in exasperation. "It's like you haven't changed at all."

 _What does that mean?_ He wanted to ask, but said nothing as he pulled his knees against his chest and glared at a spot on the floor. It was a few times now that he'd heard something like that. Something about his long or recent past that he couldn't remember at all. He wanted to ask because words failed to express how confused he was, but at the same time, he didn't want to ask. Akutagawa couldn't quite tell if he was safe or if he was walking on eggshells with these people. Just because someone said he was safe somewhere didn't mean they were being truthful.

If he _were_ to ask someone, he wouldn't choose to ask Atsushi. There was little reason not to ask him about it aside from that fact that he just didn't like him. He wouldn't ask any of them, not the people he'd simply seen around. He would consider asking Dazai. Goodness knew he felt like he always wanted to stick close to the man… But in some strange way, Dazai terrified him. He figured that if he did decide to ask, he'd try to talk to Kyouka.

This was all just a hypothetical, of course, but he did like her more than he liked everyone else. She was familiar, and having something that was familiar gave him a nice feeling.

He coughed hard into his hand as he considered all these hypothetical situations.

Atsushi looked at him for a moment before gesturing to the water he'd tried to hand to Akutagawa earlier and suggesting he drink a little.

He did, all while scowling.

Just like last time, Atsushi seemed to struggle to suppress a smile. And just like last time, it irritated Akutagawa quite a bit, but he'd prefer not to choke on his water and end in a coughing fit again, so he ignored the idiotic look on the detective's face. Though he could feel the corners of his mouth twitch downward in annoyance.

He finished half the cup before chucking the remaining water at Atsushi. The cup hit him in the shoulder, and the water spilled out. It splashed against him, clinging to his shirt and dripping down his arm.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Second by second, Akutagawa realized how idiotic throwing the cup at Atsushi had been. It was clear who held more power in that room, and it was clear who held less power. Akutagawa gulped, half convinced that he'd get some sort of punishment.

Atsushi simply exhaled slowly, seeming more irritated than angry. "I suppose I should have seen that coming from you." He picked up the cup off the ground and tossed it into a waste basket.

The door swung open quietly, and Kyouka stepped in. "Hey," she began. "I'm- Why are your clothes all wet?" Atsushi gestured to Akutagawa in response. "Oh," Kyouka muttered, seeming less than surprised or amused.

"What is it?" Atsushi asked, shaking his arm as though that would make the fabric dry faster. All it accomplished was sending water droplets in every direction.

Kyouka ignored the drops of water that almost hit her. "We're trying to decide what to do with…" Her voice trailed off and she subtly tilted her head in Akutagawa's direction. "Kunikida said he wanted you to be present."

Atsushi blinked dumbly. "Why wouldn't you be there?"

"Because I said I was alright with anything," she glanced at Akutagawa. "And someone has to watch him."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes," she replied easily.

He shrugged in the end. "As long as you're sure." Atsushi bent down so he could be at eye level with the child. "Be good for her, okay?"

Akutagawa only glared. They stared each other down a few minutes, and the child got the feeling that they could have gone on scowling for much longer.

"Atsushi, quit dragging your feet and get in here! Now!" An irritated voice yelled.

The gray haired detective jumped, quickly breaking eye contact and scrambling to the door. He looked over his shoulder to the boy, glaring daggers to discourage any bad behavior before the angry voice yelled his name again.

The scene brought a smirk to Akutagawa's lips, which instantly vanished when Kyouka glared at him. He glanced down at his hands again, lacing and unlacing his fingers. Then he glanced back at Kyouka, who sat beside him, her sky-colored eyes watching him. He shifted slightly, not comfortable with her gaze, but preferring her company to Atsushi's.

Neither said a word for a long time, the muffled speaking of the people in the office was the only thing that kept the room from being completely quiet.

He didn't want to ask. He didn't want to speak at all, but he was curious and it was Kyouka he was with.

"What are they talking about?"

Kyouka's eyes didn't change. They remained focused and prepared and unsurprised. "They're trying to decide what to do with you"

The way she said it almost made him flinch as her voice was so toneless. However, he found himself relatively unaffected by her tone. She was honest. Blunt, but clear. Somehow, it made him feel a rush of relief to hear an easy to understand answer in the confusion he felt.

A coughing fit seized him when he took a breath in. His muscles ached with it, his head throbbed. It took a moment for the coughing to subside. When it was over, he found staring at Kyouka's face as she held a tissue to his running nose. He blinked away the tears that had sprung up from his fit.

Kyouka tossed the tissue into the wastebin and took her seat next to him again. Akutagawa blinked and glared down at his hands, an action he'd grown rather accustomed to. He still felt her gaze on him, analyzing every movement.

"Here," she said softly, her voice still low and hard to read. She pushed a small, hard candy into his hand. "The doctor said it's important to keep your throat moist to reduce the number of coughing fits." And still, her voice was matter of factly, serious, and simple. But it wasn't quite cold.

Akutagawa slowly unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth. He enjoyed it more than he wanted to admit.

The door swung open, and Akutagawa flinched. Atsushi stood in the doorway, his face forced into a neutral expression that was bordering on a frown.

"What's the final decision?" Kyouka asked though Akutagawa guessed she already knew the answer.

Atsushi glanced at Akutagawa, who stared right back at him, eyes narrowed and mouth twisted into a scowl. The sour expression on Akutagawa's face seemed to be contagious because, after a minute of staring each other down, Atsushi's expression had curdled as well. He let out a long breath through his nose.

"For now, he'll be staying with us."

 **Tada!**

 **I think that might have helped me on an emotional level. I'm excited for this story to continue.**

 **Please review.**


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